13. PERSONAL TRAINING
BCF Regional Master Andy Baruch (formerly Whoberley board 1) is now
available for face to face personal training in the Coventry,
Warwickshire and surrounding areas. Players ranging from beginner to
County level who wish to improve should contact Andy by clicking
here

I little bit
about myself: I live in the historic town of Kenilworth (very close
to the medieval castle) in Warwickshire, England. I have just retired,
after a period as a consultant,
from full time work as a Technical Manager at a biotechnology company that
manufactures hydrogels for woundcare, monitoring electrode, and cosmetic
applications. Previously I was a research scientist working in a diverse
number of scientific areas (science publications,
committees, science journal refereeing etc). In my spare time I
enjoy chess, the history and culture of the Ancient Greeks, various types of music
and until recently Wing Tsun Martial Art (achieving grade 11).

Just over a decade ago I shifted from playing over-the-board (otb) chess
as well as correspondence chess to playing only correspondence chess (current
rating of 2454
ICCF rating history
1993-2018). In 2016 I returned to some relatively regular otb chess in local
leagues currently playing at about 2010 elo (a somewhat reduced level
from that of a decade or more ago (approximately 2100 elo) and also from my highest many years ago of about 2275 grading
history ). After some 25 years of playing National and International
level Correspondence Chess I completed my last few games in late 2018
and now just play otb chess.

I will attempt to offer a wide
range of chess material on this site including game and opening based articles, games for
downloading from famous players I have known or competed against, chess problems and some
current and past results. This will include both otb
and correspondence play.

In addition to more advanced articles I will also
occasionally provide articles for beginners to mid-club strength of
player.

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MONTHLY
ARTICLES SUMMARIES *

As Brexit rumbles
on with increasing degrees of disorder and irresolution one questions
why this has become so problematic. One underlining feature that was
present and increasing in intensity at the time of the referendum was
the contrast between the EC concept of free movement of people and the
growing concerns of some British people about the impact of
immigrants and refugees on employment and also possible British
"cultural dilution".

Aided by the mass
media the meaning of an immigrant and a refugee appears to have become
somewhat confused to many of the general public. No longer did these
terms simply mean a person who lives in another country or one who is
forced to leave their country due to war or other serious matters.
Instead a great range of possibilities arose including a person who was
a desired skilled or unskilled worker, legally or illegally incorporated
into the UK who may benefit the economy, to someone who is aided
willingly or unwillingly for humanitarian or moralistic reasons alone,
through to someone who might even be a proto-terrorism..

At least on some
occasions in the past the UK
chess fraternity appears to have had an easier time in dealing with the
terms immigrant and refugees as a number of non-UK chess players have
come to this country and been readily accepted and helped in this sphere
of activity . A few examples, from many possibilities and selected from around
the time of WW2, includes the German GM Jacque Mieses and the
Russian/Czech Women's World Chess
Champion Vera Menchik.

Another example is
the Russian Paul List who was forced out of that country due to the
Revolution, set up a Chess Centre in Berlin, but was again forced out of
that country by Hitler and came to England in 1938 to rebuild his chess
activities. He seems to have been reasonably successful with one example
being to win the British Lightening Championship in 1953, another
is giving no less a player than Alekhine a hard time in the Plymouth
1938 event.

This month I
provide two annotated games that demonstrate List was indeed a fine
player. The first is, curiously against Mieses, possibly from happier
times in Germany. The second is against the well-known player
Milner-Barry from a little known International event in Hampstead just
prior to WW2.

All
material for downloading from this site is zipped. Use WinZip or similar to extract. Monthly articles are
in .pgn format (from May 2000, previously in .txt format) whilst games for
downloading are in .pgn format (or .cbv occasionally).

Contributions
(preferably one or two annotated games), suggestions for
articles and comments to improve this site are welcome: mail
me!

SCCA Magazine

The SCCA magazine is published
quarterly and consists of 24xA4 pages packed with correspondence
chess news, articles, reviews and games.

SCCA members receive the
magazine as part of their annual subscription (£8). This entitles
them to download pdf files (the e-mags) from a secure area of
the SCCA website.

If you prefer to receive a
printed copy of the magazine, an extra £5 per annum covers print
costs and UK postage and you get the four issues mailed directly
to you.

The SCCA magazine is unbeatable
value! You can try a complimentary copy by contacting the
membership
secretary.

NEWS AND
NOTICES *

Local Players (February 24):

(a) In the recent Coventry League
Centenary Rapidplay event, Kenilworth top player Mark Page beats
GM Mark Hebden ( a seven times winner of the British Rapid Play
Championship and also numerous strong International events) in a very high quality attacking game.

(b) Another Kenilworth player Ben Graff ,
apart from recently displaying his skill as a novel writer, has in
the last few months had several very interesting articles published in
the magazine "Chess". This includes a very readable account of his
experience of visiting the recent World Championship match in London
between Carlsen and Caruana.

This is the premier correspondence team
event in the UK. Many of the highest rated correspondence chess players
represent their county in this event and also quite a few highly rated
otb players also play. There are numerous titled Correspondence Chess
players involved this year including some 13 with the Grandmaster title
(men and women), Senior International Master, or International Master
titles as well as many CCMs
and CCEs
(both male and female) spread throughout the various teams.

The Warwickshire team was headed up by SIM
(and former World Championship finalist) J.J.Carlton (2258) on bd 1, IM C.Shephard (2429) on
bd.2, M.Davis
(2230) on bd. 3, M.Soszynski (2268) on bd.4 and R.T.Farley
(2269) on bd. 5, with many good
players on lower boards.

A number of sections have been updated
including various "Chess Sites" links, the "Summary of Results" section (which now lists all
Correspondence events including the last to the be completed), the
"Memorabilia Corner" section for 2014-to the present, and the "Games for
Downloading" section.

Personal Training (January 20):

Players wishing to improve should now contact Regional Master AndyBaruch on his new e-mail address (see section 13 of this site).

Young players also wishing to advance should contact
Paul Lam at
https://coventrychessacademy.wordpress.com/
Paul has just completed a very successful fund raising campaign for this
academy which will be used to fund promising players attendance to
distant chess events and other supportive functions.